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Architecture

Stunning Photos of London’s Empty Olympic Arenas

By Caroline Stanley on

Earlier this year we took a look at what happens to a city after the Olympics are gone — specifically the newly-erected buildings and stadiums. While some sites are retrofitted and repurposed as prisons, malls, churches, and the like, others sit vacant and unused in the ensuing decades, abandoned totems of temporary extravagance. A post over on It’s Nice That tipped us off to a photo series by Janie Airey that was commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority to document the architecture of the 2012 London Games. Looking at her lovely images, we can’t help but wonder what the future holds for these structures in the years to come. … Read More

Architecture

Fascinating Photos of Abandoned Olympic Sites Around the World

By Claire Cottrell on

[Editor's note: It's Labor Day, so your devoted Flavorwire team is taking a break. To keep you entertained, we're leaving you with our most popular features of the summer months. This post originally ran August 13th.] The Storefront for Art & Architecture, our favorite Little Italy-adjacent nonprofit organization, has organized a photo exhibition exploring the post-Olympic city. Answering the question, what happens to a city after the Olympics are gone, the show features The Olympic City project, an ongoing collaboration between photographer Jon Pack and indie filmmaker Gary Hustwit of Helvetica design docu fame.

As the show’s catalog states, “some former Olympic sites are retrofitted and used in ways that belie their grand beginnings; turned into prisons, housing, malls, gyms, churches. Others sit unused for decades and become tragic time capsules.” We’re as horrified as we are fascinated by the fact that billions of dollars are spent every two years only to see such a sad — sometimes bizarre — fate. From abandoned Olympic villages to crumbling public art commissions, click through to check out the very best of Olympic ruin porn. Then let us know in the comments what you think about such a temporary extravagance. Should cities re-think the Olympics? Will London’s flashy stadiums look like this one day? … Read More

Fashion

The Fug Report: Highs and Lows from the Week in Fashion

By Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan on

Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

This week on Go Fug Yourself, we were on… Read More

Film

10 of Film’s Greatest Training Montages

By Molly Cameron on

The London 2012 Summer Olympics kick off tonight with Danny Boyle’s highly-anticipated opening ceremony, and like most people around the world right now, we can’t wait to curl up on the couch for the next 17 days and be blown away by the crazy athletic prowess on display. Watching competitors put their all into winning a medal can be pretty darn inspiring, but of course we’re seeing the results of weeks, months, and even years of training. Luckily, there are a ton of films to help us imagine those moments that we didn’t see using one of the best cinematic devices created: the training montage. Check out ten classic sequences below, and let us know what we may have missed in the comments! … Read More

Film

Video of the Day: “Olympic Vermin”

By Caroline Stanley on

Spotted by The Daily What, this clever animated short created by Amael Isnard and Leo Bridle “pokes fun at the Olympics and its so-called ‘inclusivity’ dogma,” depicting an alternative version of the Olympic Torch Relay starring London’s squirrels, pigeons, rats, and other urban creatures. Their destination? A trashcan outside of the Olympic Park. Click through to watch it now, and let us know in the comments if you’re as charmed by these unlikely torchbearers as we are. … Read More

Photography

Martin Schoeller’s Intriguing Shots of US Olympic Athletes

By Caroline Stanley on

Whether he’s shooting portraits of female bodybuilders or extreme close-ups of famous celebrities, German photographer Martin Schoeller always captures the stark reality of his subjects in his work. It’s a lovely thing, and a talent that was put to good use in his recent photos for TIME Magazine, Women’s Health, and ESPN Magazine. Training his lens on several of the American athletes headed to London for the 2012 Olympic Games (as well as Oksana Masters, who will be rowing in the Paralympic games in late August), Schoeller gives the viewer an intimate glimpse at the person behind the fierce competitor. Gymnast Gabby Douglas performs an effortless split against her family’s refrigerator; track and field athlete Lolo Jones is caught in a rare moment of robed repose; swimmer Ryan Lochte embraces his inner poster boy, adjusting his goggles as beads of water drip from his body. Click through for a slideshow of some of our favorite shots, and be sure to check out the 2012 Olympics special issue of TIME, on stands now. … Read More

Photography

Artful Photographs of the Daily Diets of Turkish Olympians

By Emily Temple on

With just over a month until the official kickoff of the London Olympics, you can bet that hundreds of elite athletes all over the world are kicking their regimes into high gear. Of course, that includes their carefully planned diets, a few of which photographer Umit Bektas has captured in a great series we first spotted over at My Modern Met. It’s amazing how much some of these athletes eat in a day (and so many apples!), and we can only imagine how much training they’re doing if their bodies require all that fuel. Also, now we’re hungry. … Read More

Architecture

Preview Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron’s 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

By Caroline Stanley on

After turning heads with their collaborative work on the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ai Weiwei and the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron were selected earlier this year to design the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, an honor that has previously been bestowed on the likes of Zaha Hadid, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Nouvel, and Frank Gehry. In a departure from previous efforts, this year’s design includes a maze-like subterranean level that is meant to function almost like an archaeological dig, exploring the 11 pavilions that preceded it.

“So many Pavilions in so many different shapes and out of so many different materials have been conceived and built that we tried instinctively to sidestep the unavoidable problem of creating an object, a concrete shape,” they explain in the press release. “All of these foundations will now be uncovered and reconstructed. The old foundations form a jumble of convoluted lines, like a sewing pattern. A distinctive landscape emerges out of the reconstructed foundations which is unlike anything we could have invented; its form and shape is actually a serendipitous gift. The three-dimensional reality of this landscape is astonishing and it is also the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down or just look and be amazed.”

Click through to check out some photos from the press preview, and if you’re in London, head to Kensington Gardens beginning tomorrow to see their amazing work in person. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Today’s colorful Google Doodle marks what would have been Keith Haring’s 54th birthday. We approve. [via Pop Culture Brain]

2. If you were as bummed as we were about missing out on that celebrity-filled March reading of Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s Prop 8 play 8, then you’ll be happy to hear… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. You know what you need to wake you up after the long holiday weekend? A new Odd Future video, directed by Tyler, the Creator. Watch the NSFW clip for “Rella” here, but be warned: Tyler as a creepy centaur is not the scariest thing that you’ll see.

2. One of four versions… Read More